Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

What's Going On?

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Last week I wrote a post, Expect the Unexpected.  I asked if your dogs wore collars in the house and what you thought about it.

Opinions vary as to whether a dog should wear their collar in the house.  There is definitely a choking/strangling hazard especially if you have more than one dog and they interact with each other.

But there is also a very real risk that a dog can either escape or accidentally get out of their house or yard.

Last Tuesday Hubby walked out the door and left his keys inside.  We’d had some really nice weather and our bedroom windows were open so I happened to hear him outside our room asking the dogs ‘where mommy was?’  Like they could have told him. 🙂

Well he asked me to let him in and I did, then I went about my business of getting ready for work.  The dogs decided they wanted to go out so I opened the door and left it open a crack so they could come back in without disturbing me.

I was just about finished when I wondered…where are the dogs?

I went to the door and Sampson was just lying there waiting, but Delilah was nowhere about.  I stepped out on the deck and called her, looking up into the backyard but I didn’t see or hear her.  Something made me look to my right and the gate was open.

My heart just about stopped.  I immediately looked over into the neighbor’s yard and sure enough there she was foraging for nuts and anything edible.

I figured it was breakfast time so I wouldn’t have a problem getting her back, I called “Delilah, Delilah breakfast!”   She looked up at me and walked around behind the house.

I ran to the front and called her again and she ignored me.

I ran into the house and grabbed the bowl of food and ran back out to the front.

“Delilah, breakfast!”

She looked up and ran toot sweet to me.

Luckily for me she didn’t wander too far, but if she’d gotten farther than the neighbor’s house, I could have had a serious problem.

Strangely enough, Pamela at Something Wagging had a post The Year of Living Dangerously – What’s The Real Risk? where she mentioned her husband had left the back door open at lunch and her Golden Retriever, Honey had gotten out into the back yard.  Thankfully that is where she stayed.

The next day I read My Dog Ran Away Last Night t by Lauren at Life With Desmond.  Somehow Desmond became an escape artist and managed to get outside their stockade fence.  After a frantic sprint around the block, Lauren managed to safely retrieve Desmond from the neighbor’s yard.  You have to read it to believe it.

As if that wasn’t enough the very next day Kim at Life At Golden Pines had a post Out Of Sync And Unusual.  Kim came home from work on Friday to find her dogs upset.  Upon closer investigation Kim discovered three screens had been removed from windows she’d left open for the dogs to enjoy the nice weather.  Apparently someone had tried to break in.

Delilah’s little adventure combined with these three other stories reinforces my decision to make sure my dogs have name tags on them at all times.

Delilah and her identification 'necklace.'

It also makes me wonder, what in the world is going on?

Have you heard or experienced anything weird going on with the dogs in your world?

Where'd It Go?

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This morning I decided to sit down and finish my taxes.

Delilah was bored, I could tell because she had her squeaky football in her mouth and wanted to play fetch.

Hubby threw the ball a couple of times, then she brought it to me in the den.  I threw it down the hall a couple of times and then she decided she wanted to go out on the balcony.

After a minute or so I checked on her and found her staring down the driveway.

Just staring.

I looked out to see what had her attention and saw her ball, rolling down the driveway.

If you look very closely, you can see a little red dot where the driveway meets the road.

Yup, that's it.

I couldn’t help myself, I had to laugh.  She was so stinkin cute,  just standing there staring.

I ran down the driveway in my pajamas.  I do just about anything to get out of preparing my taxes. 🙂

Dog Training….Delilah Style

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After last week’s fiasco where Delilah took off on me I vowed to find another way and I promised to share that with you.  Well here goes!

Many of you, so very many of you rallied to my support and offered suggestions and ideas for working with her.  There were so many awesome suggestions that I couldn’t pick just one….or two…or three.   Here’s what I came up with.

I really think Delilah is a very smart girl and as such I need to keep her interested.  I need to vary her walks and keep them interesting to her, so interesting that she can’t possibly leave me, because she might miss something.

In other words, our walks are going to be like going to Disney World….for dogs.

I put her on a 15 foot leash so she isn’t too far away from me.

I’m sure all of you positive dog trainers know the name for this game, but I’m calling it, “Oh you caught me.”

I play it this way, I wait until I have a loose leash (this can be a while because she is almost always at the end of her leash) and I place a few pieces of whatever is in my treat bag on a flat rock.  Most times she turns around and catches me in the act and I say, “Oh you caught me,” or “My you are quicker than I am.”

Sometimes I have to wait a minute and pretend that I’m just placing it, because she isn’t really paying attention. 🙂

Currently I have some ‘diet’ Blackwood chicken kibble and some beef jerky from Trader Joe’s in my treat bag.  I have to be sure and place the treats on a flat rock that doesn’t have moss, sticks, or rocks on it or for sure that crazy girl would inhale it all.

Sometimes I can’t get her to leave my side.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

I’ve been playing the “You caught me game” since last Saturday and decided yesterday to incorporate some other ideas into our walk.

First I had her sit while Sampson and I walked away from her.  My goal was to recall her to me, but as I walked out of her sight she came running to me.  I was actually excited by this, but since she didn’t ‘stay’ I brought her back and re-sat her and then walked away again and this time she did awesome.

I also played a little game of Kibble Catch with her.

I think the best thing would be for Delilah to have a job, and will be looking for some kind of training or class that she and I can participate in together, to help cement our bond.  I also intend on Thursday obedience class to be our thing, Hubby and Sampson will need to find something else to do.

I intend to get a harness for her and a doggie backpack, one day she can wear a harness, one day she can walk on long leash, one day she will wear a pack.  The key for Delilah is to not get too comfortable with any given thing.

When I first put her on the 30 foot leash, she became a model walker.  She rarely left the trails and stayed very close to me.  Once she became comfortable, she started exploring farther and farther away, and eventually started running off.

Oh and Dr. McConnell’s dvd came the other day, I hope to check that out this weekend. 🙂

Changing the topic really quickly, Mel Freer of No Dog About It Blog is a strong warrior fighting a battle against puppy mills.  Mel lives in Minnesota and you may or may not be aware but a bill is prepping for a house vote and Mel needs your support.  If you live in Minnesota, please visit Mel’s blog and follow the link to sign the petition.

If you don’t live in Minnesota, please visit Mel’s blog and re-post it on facebook, tweet it, stumble it, or consider adding a link to your blog.

Together we really can make a difference!!

Book update: My book has 19,083 words.

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